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What you should consider and do when you are planning out your career.

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Posted on 21/09/2017 by Hannah Grant

Planning your career path is a very important part of finding a job. It doesn’t matter if you are still in education or are simply looking for a career change, planning allows you to figure out what you want to do and means that you can help to get where you want to be.

When planning for your career, you need to do 4 things:

Understand yourself

You need to have a clear understanding of what your key skills are. This will not only help you when you go to interviews, it will enable you to assess what you can achieve and if you need to improve on some key skills. Furthermore, you need to know what you like and dislike doing, so that you know what sort of roles you can apply for. You should ask yourself questions like ‘Where do I want to be?’ and ‘What do I want out of my career?’.

Market Research

Once you understand what it is you want from your career and what your strengths are, you can then start assessing what work is currently available and which industries are performing well. To do this you can use sites like the BBC or the ONS (Office for National Statistics). The BBC recently posted that UK manufacturing output picked up in July (2017) and an industries' performance/improvement is something that you should consider when career planning, as you can consider if your career will have some level of stability.

Market Comparison

Now you know what is available and yourself a little better. You can start comparing your options to find the best way for you to achieve your goals and targets. Techniques that you can use to do this is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis or simply write the pros and cons of each option. There are many free templates online that you can use to do this.

Action

This step is simple. Create a plan so that you can start working towards your goals. Things you can do is consider work experience options, or job shadowing, to confirm if you do want to take that path. Or if you know what it is you want to do, can apply for jobs.

Alternatively, you can get in touch with us. We help hundreds of people kick-start their careers in a variety of industries. Our consultants take time to understand what you are looking for and help you achieve your aspirations and goals. Have a look at our current vacancies and see if there is something there that will help you with your career.